Chiefs WR Wade Experienced Similar Issues Surrounding KU's Mangino

by Joel Thorman on Nov 20, 2009 9:00 AM CST in 2009 Kansas City Chiefs Campaign

I don't venture outside of the NFL very often. The majority of my news sources are focused on the NFL and other than catching a score here or there, or checking out future NFL players, I can't say I'm a big college football junkie. However, I have been following the tail end of this mess with KU and head coach Mark Mangino.

The story's been hot on sports talk radio in Kansas City but here's a quick version: KU athletic director Lew Perkins held a meeting with the KU football players concerning some stories of verbal and physical abuse from current and former players. An independent and unbiased person will conduct an internal investigation into the allegations.

The allegations have the majority of afternoon radio time devoted to determining what will come of this.

Chiefs WR Bobby Wade played under head coach John Mackovic at Arizona and experienced a similar situation from the players view. Mackovic was under similar circumstances to Mangino where former and current players were complaining of verbal abuse from the coach.

Wade talked about these experiences on 810 WHB.

Wade points out that when new coaches come in, "a lot of them start to second guess themselves with where they're at and talk about transfers and stuff like that." Just like a new head coach in the NFL, there's a lot of change in the program with a new head coach.

"The players felt it was getting ridiculous. He thought it was more about him and not the program," Wade said.

Mackovic reportedly told one of the tight ends that he was a disgrace to his family. This led to a backdoor meeting with some of the players and the school president.

"It was a players only thing," Wade explained, "and the players went in there and talked to the president and told them what they felt about it."

Sound a little familiar? Yeah, that's pretty similar to the situation in Kansas. Wade says that it got to the point that some players, mainly the younger ones, let Mackovic "take a lot of the love of the game out of them."

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Comments

Ooooh. What a surprise.

Let me ask you this. If you interviewed all the unhappy people at any job would they say anything good about the boss?
Better yet, do you think there would be anyone at a Sarah Palin raly that would have anything good to say about Obama?
Enough said.

by BCRavenJHawkfan on Nov 20, 2009 9:16 AM CST reply actions

It seems in a situation like this...

that you would see a lot of players tranferring. You really don’t see that at KU. I am not saying Mangino can’t be an asshole — we have seen videos and reports that he can be, but where does it cross the line from being rude to it being “abusive.” I haven’t heard any allegations that he physically threatened a player, and the only complaint of physical abuse was Arist Wright getting “poked in the chest.” Poked in the chest? You are a football player and you are whining about being poked in the chest by the coach? How far has college football fallen from the glory days of Bear Bryant et. al?

And there are daily complaints on this site that Todd Haley is too intense. Give me a break. Its football! If you have every played the game you know you play harder when you are pissed at the coach — you want to prove him wrong for everything insulting he has said to you.

I could maybe see this being an issue in high school or small school Div II, but not the Big 12 at the Div I level. Competetion at that level is intense and players have to be motivated and focused. If it takes being pissed at the coach to make you more physical and play with an extra tenacity — then so be it.

I can tell you this much — if KU was leading the Big 12 North at this time, the Mangino thing would be a non-issue.

by Nick Britt on Nov 20, 2009 9:17 AM CST reply actions